DFINITY: a decentralized cloud governed by a distributed intelligence

DFINITY raised $3.75 million in just over 24 hours through a Zug-based not-for-profit. They announced a target of 1 million CFH and once that was reached, accepted donations for another 24 hours. In total, they raised 210,545 ETH, 867 BTC, and 550,000 CFH (off-chain).

Project Description

DFINITY is a Switzerland based non-profit organization launching a decentralized cloud computing network that will support massive internet services such as secure messaging, sharing economy networks, and other distributed applications (dapps). DFINITY brands itself as a sister network to Ethereum, supporting the Ethereum ecosystem and introducing complementary technology without competing directly. Dapps built on Ethereum will be easily transferable to the DFINITY network.

Distributed Intelligence as Governance

DFINITY will implement a distributed intelligence economic governance entity, known as the Blockchain Nervous System (BNS), which will have omnipotent power to make changes to network protocols. BNS is both software and a process that draws on human members of the network who participate in governance by staking a portion of their token and open a Neuron. The BNS will be subject to a constant stream of proposals ranging from inflation changes, client upgrades, and even freezing accounts. Through a neuron, users can vote on all proposals or specify other users whose vote they follow for different types of proposals, a la liquid democracy.

The team describes it as a “belevolent decentralized superuser” and contrasts the approach to Ethereum’s “Code is Law.” It also aims to be the mature governance system The DAO lacked.

The BNS will have a “genesis constitution” to guide neurons, and it will propose that BNS’s primary objective is to maximize the the value of DFINITY tokens, which involves attracting more users and increasing network security, performance, capacity and efficiency. However, through the BNS system, neurons will be able to propose whatever they want. The BNS will also function to automate updates to the network by managing and syncing patch installations across the DFINITY ecosystem.

What is the token being sold?

The sale involves 1 million DFINITY tokens (DFN) which are required to execute smart contracts and participate on the network. DFN holders can user their tokens to

execute smart contracts (similar to gas on the Ethereum network);

create a “mining identity” to collect PoS mining rewards;

participate in BSN decision making by creating a “neuron”: a node that votes on network development proposals

attach a private cloud network to the public DFINITY network.

Creating a mining identity, becoming a neuron node, and attaching a private cloud to the DFINITY network all require the user to make a security deposit of DFN. The probability of collecting mining rewards and the weight of a Neuron node’s “vote” is directly proportional to the quantity of their DFN deposit.

78% of premined DFN, to be seeded in the genesis block, will be allocated to participants in the “seed” and “main” crowdsales. Both the emission rate and the supply are determined by the BNS. The BNS has the power to change the supply cap and the emission rate if it determines that it will benefit the network (i.e. raise the value of DFN).

What are the sale terms?

The sale accepts Bitcoin, Ether, and Swiss Francs (CHF). In the seed funding round, 1CHF will purchase 30DFN. This is a significant bonus compared to the earliest period of the main crowdsale, which will begin in the summer of 2017. At the start of the main crowdsale, 1CHF will buy 12.5DFN. This bonus will decrease gradually until it falls to 10DFN per 1 CHF.

The sale is not open to citizens or residents of the United States of America. This is presumably because of the uncertain legal status of crypto-investment offerings in the USA.

What is the project status?

In this investment round, DFINTY is raising seed funds to bootstrap development of a beta release (known as the Copper release) of the DFINTY network. The Copper release is expected to launch in mid 2017 and will include the full implementation of the BNS artificial intelligence.

The DFINITY github account contains repositories for important components of the network, including a mechanism called a “Threshold-Relay Chain” that enables faster transaction finality.

Who is the team behind the project?

The DFINITY ecosystem is governed by the DFINITY Foundation, a non-profit located in Switzerland.

President of Council and Chief Scientist Dominic Williams is the president and CTO of String Labs, Inc, a venture-backed crypto-technology incubator. Dominic is also the Founder and CTO of Fight my Monster, an MMO game that helped pioneer several distributed computing technologies, including the Cassandra database.

Council Member and Operations Manager Cédric Waldburger has 10 years of experience in CTO and CEO positions at startups.